The present invention is applicable to food processors of the type having a working bowl with a motor driven tool drive means projecting upward into the bowl with which various selected rotary food processing tools can be engaged to be driven for performing various food processing operations in accordance with the desires of the user. A removable cover is secured over the top of the bowl during use. The cover includes a feed tube having a feed passageway which opens downwardly through the cover into the top of the bowl, and food items to be processed are placed in the feed tube and then pushed down through the feed tube into the bowl by means of a removable food pusher which is adapted to slide down in the manner of a plunger through the feed tube. The food items are sliced or otherwise processed by the rotating food processing tool and the top of the bowl.
Additional information with respect to such food processors may be had by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,892,365-Verdun; 3,985,304-Sontheimer; 4,198,887-Williams; 4,200,244-Sontheimer; 4,216,917-Clare & Sontheimer; 4,213,570-Jones; 4,226,373-Williams; and 4,227,655-Williams.
Of particular interest to the present invention are rotary food processing tools which are used for slicing, dicing, cutting, rasping, grating, and for making French fry slices or julienne slices and the like from food items, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, cucumbers, celery, cabbage, squash, etc. Such rotary food processing tools have a horizontal disc-like member formed of sheet metal, preferably of stainless steel, which is mounted on an elongated hub extending down in the bowl of the food processor and which is coupled near its lower end to a motor-driven tool drive means. A horizontal cutting blade or other cutting or grating or rasping structure is associated with the horizontal disc-like member such that when items are cut they pass through one or more openings in the disc-like member into the bowl. The type of food processing which is performed by a rotary tool is determined by the type of cutting structure on the disc, the spacing and elevation of the cutting edges, the nature of the top surface of the disc, etc.
In the prior art, in order to change the parameters or the particular cutting function of a rotary food processing tool, the entire tool is removed from the bowl and replaced by another tool. Accordingly, a multiplicity of separate tools each having an elongated hub and a flat horizontal disc-like member are kept on hand for performing different types of food processing operations. The elongated hub or shank projecting from each disc-like member of the respective rotary tools may cause a storage problem in crowded kitchens with little storage space, when there is a need for having on hand a multiplicity of individual rotary tools of different types.